Errors in /var/adm/messages

max. number of processes reached while sendmail tried to fork itself (for receiving or sending mail)

If this happens frequently, you should increase your kernel parameter for max. number of allowed processes. Most UNIXs
require to rebuild the kernel for this :-(

kill off some processes
recomfigure the kernel with more processes

ozo, you should change your account name to KISS
I like it ;-)

Can you give me more details on how to edit the kernel please !

Use SAM if it's HP UX (somewhere in there)

If it's Solaris, then it's in /etc/system:
   Per user--->set maxuprc =
   System wide--->set max_nprocs =
   touch /reconfigure
   reboot
 
What's the OS?

It looks like you don't have the correct permissions or directories for your mail queue. Check the access list on your mail queue directory and make sure that your mail user (or whatever account your running sendmail as) has full access as well as ownership of this directory.

Cwalter, I'm logged on as Root, so i should have the access rights. The ownership of the file is also Root, so that should'nt be a problem.

I think Arthurd's comment is more along the right lines. In answer to your question it's running Solaris 2.5.1

Arthurd,
Is this a serious error ?, as I've done a df-k and my /var is only at 75%

Thanks

Penfold

Check your message:

   .. cannot fork ..

So you have to increase the number of processes, or find out why there are so much.

arthurd,
At present I only have three users on the machine. Is setting the
Max user=512 the only way to resolve it ?

This is just kernel parameter.  It's not going to open up your system to a mass of users.  All this will do is make the kernel a little bigger and more capable of handling bigger loads.  I think the default for maxusers is something like 128.  So, it's not a huge increase.  I can't think of anything else off hand that might correct it.

Dave

Thanks for the Answer Arthurd